No. XXXVI

METEMPSYCHOSIS means, in its chief aspect, not transmigration which is of souls, but the vivification or illumination of a soul already incarnate by the spirit of a preceding "angel." Thus, the soul of Jesus was overshadowed by the angel of Moses.

The Word, Logos, or Adonai--for they are the same--speaks in the spirit of one or the other of the Gods of the Seven Spheres. He spoke through the Spirit, or God, of the Fourth Sphere--Dionysos or Iacchos--to Noah, Moses, and Jesus. Nevertheless Jesus was not an incarnation of either of these, and when he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," he spoke, in one sense, 3 of his own former birth as Isaac. For Jesus was a transmigration or re-incarnation of the soul of Isaac, and the two names are occultly related.

The metempsychosis constitutes a planetary Avatâr. The number of these is variously stated to be ten and twelve. Both are, in a sense, right. There are ten such Avatârs and twelve angels, or messengers, for the first and last are dual or "twins." The pair at the first Avatâr were "Eve" and "Adam"--for this also is one sense of the allegory. The Avatârs and their angels have their corresponding signs in the Zodiac, the double ones being represented by the double signs Gemini and Pisces. The latter Avatâr, now at hand, will introduce Aquarius, "the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven." Heracles is an epitome of the

"twelve Avatârs of the Lord." Each of his labours--the labours, that is, of the soul--represents a divine operation, and constitutes an Avatâr, while its sign in the Zodiac corresponds to the nature of the Labour. These signs represent the twelve gates of the Holy City, or perfected kosmos, and the twelve mysteries of the greater initiation; and the gates are spoken of as pearls, because pearls are found at the sea-bottom, and in oysters, which are difficult to get and hard to open; and the sea represents the Holy Spirit and the soul. In order to obtain these twelve mysteries, one must be at great labour and trouble, risking one's life in diving for them, going down into the sea naked and stripped of all things, finding them in obscurity and darkness, and when they are brought up, requiring a keen blade to open them.

The "twelve apostles" are types of these angels and mysteries. John represents the dual messenger to come. And by a metempsychosis corresponding to that by which the spirit of Moses instructed Jesus, the spirit of John will instruct the angel of the new Avatâr. This spirit is dual. For John represents both the Virgin and himself. This is the "mother" referred to by Jesus at his crucifixion. John comprises the feminine as well as the masculine element. His inspiring spirit is the same as that of Daniel. The spirit that informed Noah, Moses, and Jesus is Dionysos (Jehovah Nissi), the God of the planet. And the spirit which informed Daniel and John, and will inform the angel of this century, is Michael, who represents Zeus and Hera, or the planet Jupiter. 1

That which comes back as a messenger or angel, is not the personal soul of the individual man employed; for that has become transmuted into spirit. Nor does the spirit itself which was in that soul become re-incarnate. That which comes is the overshadowing informing spirit who influenced and spoke through the man in his lifetime, and the man himself also, who has become an angel, or pure spirit, and who no longer needs the body. So that his return is voluntary, and his coming an Avatâr. The new Avatâr will be of the double or overshadowing spirit of Daniel and John, as well as the spirit which was in those men. For, owing to the union between them, the two--the man's spirit and the divine spirit--are so much one as to be scarcely distinguishable; and the

God speaks through the man's spirit. It is as a tube within a tube. God speaks through the Logos, the Logos through an Elohe, and the Elohe through the perfected spirit of a former prophet. But of this last it is a metempsychoisis, not a transmigration or re-incarnation. That is, the spirit returning informs the spirit of one already incarnate, and who, like John the Baptist, may be thus used without being himself regenerate and "in the kingdom of God."

Footnotes

90:3 Another sense was Abraham's recognition of the doctrine implied by the term "Christ." In their profoundest and most interior meaning the Patriarchs represent the component elements of the planetary divinity. E. M.

91:1 See Daniel X, 21, and xii, i, and Apoc. xii, 7. That Michael is by many regarded as the angel of the sun, is probably from their taking him to be the "angel standing in the sun" of Apoc. xix, 17. But even so, the position would not imply more than a temporary presidency. E. M.